Test_Lab: Fleshing Out

A two-day event about close-to-the-skin technology organized by V2_ and Virtueel Platform. Recent developments in science, including DNA and stem cell research, tissue culture, smart materials and wearable technology, have a growing impact on how we perceive materials and clothing in design practice.

FLESHING OUT

WEARABLE INTERFACES,

SMART MATERIALS,

LIVING FABRICS

In the 21st century, cutting-edge technology, such as nano-technology, is dropping into our design and clothing, without a second through on the social and ethical consequences. The discourse and values of the fashion industry clash with those of the electronic giants, and we find ourselves in a situation where new manufacturing protocols are required. Below, several design projects are described that spark the discussion on these new manufacturing protocols, before the industry can sneak such developments into our everyday lives.

It was through the publication Fashioning the Future - Tomorrows wardrobe (Thames & Hudson, 2005) thatSuzanne Lee, senior research fellow in fashion at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, University of the Arts London, made a landmark contribution to the awareness of the influence of technology on today’s fashion design. By providing an overview of the technological developments that continue to influence contemporary fashion design and by exemplifying new technologies that are about to leave the experimental phase and enter our everyday lives, Lee’s book is not only an excellent overview of past and new technological developments in fashion design, but also a critical signal of things to come.

Taking this critical signal as a starting point to spark discussion on new manufacturing protocols, a selection of the most exciting and critical projects that adopt new technologies for fashion, art, and design were presented at an event titled FLESHING OUT Wearable Interfaces, Smart Materials, Living Fabrics, at V2_ Rotterdam, in November 2006. Some of the most exciting (and sometimes confronting and shocking) projects presented during the FLESHING OUT seminar, were those that adopt biotechnology to grow material into a design. After a history of successively wearing animal skin, creating cotton, and creating nylon, it seems that a new era has started, in which materials will be grown into wearable products. The projects BioCouture,Victimless Leather, and Biojewellery, presented at FLESHING OUT, all adopt biotechnology to allow control over the growth of natural materials and the manipulation of these processes for design purposes at a nano-scale.

This seminar brings together leading and critical initiatives in the field of wearable technology and smart materials and presents them to a wide audience of artists, designers, scientists and students from a variety of disciplines.

The workshop provides a more intimate setting for a selected group
of speakers from the seminar and several invited Dutch experts. They
come together in this workshop to analyse best practices in the
interdisciplinary field of wearable technology, come up with scenarios,
and research the possibilities of setting up new innovative projects in
the Netherlands. The workshop will be held on Friday 10th of November
at the Zwijger in Amsterdam. The Fleshing Out workshop is by invitation
only.

On Friday June 10 V2_ will host the ‘Community Meat Up’. A special edition of our 'Community Meet Up'. During this event we will present work from Isaac Monté, Emilie van Spronsen, Mandy den Elzen, Marloes Haarmans and The Kitchen of the ...

On May 26th of 2011 'Test_Lab Clothing without Cloth' explores new directions for wearable and fashionable technology. Here we have a look at some recent and not so recent projects and events from the V2_archive which are somehow related.